The name is a corruption of the designation "Ketischer Ort," which first appears in 1624 for the apparently sparsely built-up little lane. "Ort" in street names means as much as corner. Indeed, in 1523 a certain Tewes Keth owned one of the corner houses in this lane. Over time this personal name was corrupted into Köksche Gasse. The expression "ketisch" probably derives from an adjective "kätsch" or "ketsch," which actually means mushy, soft, but also greasy. An apparently related verb "katschkern" -- to walk through thin mud -- is attested in the Danzig dialect. The present corrupted form Köksche Gasse is only found from 1773 onward.

Considering the humorous expression "Kiek in de Kök" (Peek into the Kitchen), one could assume that the forebears understood Köksche Gasse as Kitchen Lane, and this apparently led the postwar renaming commission astray, for today it is called, in translation, Remter Lane -- or, put more elegantly, Dining Hall Lane.

History